Florida innocence commission

Commission can reduce wrongful convictions with legislative support.

June 3, 2010

Sprinkled throughout the U.S. Constitution is the notion that accused criminals are to be treated fairly and justly.

A high ideal in theory, but too often dogged by judicial breakdowns in practice. When that happens, the system locks up someone like James Bain. He received a life sentence for the 1974 rape of a 9-year-old Lake Wales boy. Only he didn't do the crime. After serving 35 years, Mr. Bain finally tasted freedom in December after DNA testing exonerated him.

Tragically, Mr. Bain's plight isn't uncommon in Florida. At long last, however, it appears the state intends to do more to prevent such miscarriages of justice than simply hoping truth will win the day. Armed with $200,000 in legislative start-up money, the state Supreme Court appears poised to create an innocence commission to examine wrongful convictions and recommend reforms.

It's a badly needed backstop, given that largely because of DNA evidence, 11 people who wrongly were robbed of their liberty were exonerated in recent years. Still, the commission's effectiveness depends on legislators' commitment to funding and to adopting its recommendations.

The push for a state innocence commission came in December from a group of lawyers and former state Supreme Court justices. Echoing a 2006 report by the American Bar Association's Florida Death Penalty Assessment Team, they petitioned the state Supreme Court to establish a panel modeled after a court-ordered commission of legal experts, police and victim advocates in North Carolina.

In March, Chief Justice Peggy Quince rejected the petitioner's request to establish the commission through a deliberative process. But she left open the prospect of getting the commission up and running quickly by signing an administrative order to create it. In any case, legislative funding was an issue.

Sen. Mike Haridopolos scrounged up $200,000, calling it "a good start" to launch the commission.

Similar to the way the National Transportation Safety Board investigates plane crashes, the innocence commission would review Florida cases where jailed innocents have already been exonerated and released. It will not have the authority to intervene in cases wending through the judicial system. The commission will provide a lessons-learned look at wrongful convictions, determining where the process went awry. The goal: suggesting policy reforms to prevent future travesties.

It comes too late to help Anthony Caravella, who was freed in March after serving 26 years for a 1983 rape and murder he didn't commit. But auditing cases like his — in which Mr. Caravella's public defender last year introduced new evidence that showed police had beaten a confession out of the mildly retarded then-15-year-old — could prevent abuses that result in innocents rotting behind bars.

Steady funding is critical. As it is, the $200,000 covers only this budget year. Given the stakes, the commission shouldn't have to worry about passing the hat every year to do its duty.

And for fiscal conservatives, it's a money-saver. After all, $200,000 is a bargain compared to what the state must pay to house wrongly convicted inmates or compensate exonerees with a clean record ($50,000 for each year behind bars).

Florida has a long history of state-sanctioned commissions making recommendations that go nowhere. Given the Innocence Project of Florida reports that DNA testing has exonerated 248 U.S. citizens — including 17 on death row — since 1992, the Legislature cannot let any viable reforms that come from the commission collect dust.